Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Shifting Priorities

I came up with this crazy plan/schedule last month to finish all of my WiPs this year. I know, right? It's crazy talk.

In case you're interested, I'm already kind of behind schedule. I've put in a pretty good effort, though. It all started back in early July, when I got sick of seeing all those unquilted tops and their pieced backings stacked up in the corner of my sewing room. So I basted them and quilted them.

Now I have a stack of quilts that need to be bound. I didn't start out the year planning to finish all my WiPs, but machine quilting all those tops last month gave me an appetite for more closure.

The plan wasn't really all that ridiculous, considering that most of my WiPs are already quilt tops - they just need to be backed, basted, quilted, and bound. What I didn't account for in my plan was the jelly roll project I'd be starting each month that would add another project to the WiP list.

I also failed to account for the distraction factor. It seems like every week, I see something out in blogland that convinces me that I have to finish this project, no this project, or how about this project next. My current priorities for the month:

1) Finish machine quilting my string quilt, because the machine quilting pattern I'm using is fabulous thus far, and I'm excited to see what kind of quilting texture comes out of it.

2) Finish my Central Park Hexagon quilt so that I can participate in the Festival of Hexagons at the end of the month. This is where I start cringing and getting a little bit nervous. I still have a good bit of work to do on this project.

3) Back, baste, and at least quilt my Ruby quilt, so I'm not adding anything to the WiP list this month.

In less ambitious news, here's what we're eating this week. (Check out OrgJunkie for more meal ideas.) Notice the abundance of beans in our diet this week - it's the end of our home budget cycle, so the grocery bucket is getting perilously low.

4 comments:

Your "Joy" quilt....is that pure white you're using with it? I'm making a Joy quilt too and have been so conflicted with what to use for background. Generally I don't love white and I was thinking the prints in the Joy line with lots of white would get lost in a white background but it really doesn't look like it does. Your picture helps my decision a lot!

Have you considered machine binding your quilts? I've found that using Amanda Jean's (Crazy Quilt Mom) tutorial, I can bind a quilt in 30-45 minutes, and then it's done! And it looks pretty good, too! That's a gorgeous pile of quilts, and a really ambitious plan - good luck!!!